Elizabeth Edwards

The Facts

We can now say with some certainty that Widow Loveland's husband was John Loveland, baptised 11-Sep-1599 at St.Lawrence, Norwich, the son of John Loveland a prominent citizen of that city. Like his father, John first became a worsted weaver before moving to London to become involved with shipping. His elder brother William (bap 1584) and younger brothers Jeremy (bap 1605) and Robert (bap 1607) were also merchants. John and Jeremy owned part shares in ships from time to time. Their only other brother, Joseph, became a priest and his memorial can be seen in Norwich Cathedral.

The fateful voyage to the New World occurred sometime before 3 February 1639 when John's brother Robert was granted Letters of Administration in London, John having died 'in parts beyond the sea' probably six month or so earlier. We cannot yet say for sure whether the Widow was Elizabeth Busfield who married John Loveland, a Spanish Merchant, in 1631 but this is certainly a possibility.

John left two sons John and Thomas who grew up with their mother in Connecticut. Work continues to locate the birth details of John and Thomas, but the evidence of their grandfather's 1649 will (John of Norwich) suggests that John was the elder. It is possible that the Widow also had a daughter Mary, born about 1644 but this child was certainly not by her husband John. The Widow remarried Thomas Edwards around 1651 and had a daughter Ruth.

Available evidence suggests that the Widow's son John married but had no issue while his brother Thomas married Charity Hart by whom he had nine children.

It is Thomas Loveland from whom the majority of North American Lovelands are descended.

The Robert Loveland who appears frequently in the New England archives until at least 1668 was the Widow's brother-in-law, her late husband's brother.

Brother Jeremy also died relatively young - at the age of 45. Letters of Administration were granted to his brother Joseph in December 1650. If it is assumed that the 'three brothers' of Family Tradition were John, Robert and Jeremy, then Jeremy is a candidate for the one who died in the Connecticut River.

As other pages at this site show, a great deal is now known about this family.

Widow Loveland

The Widow Loveland and her sons were of the first settlers of Wethersfield, CT coming here in 1635.

The UK Roots of the Connecticut Lovelands

Wethersfield

By 1633, the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony towns of Newtown, Watertown, and Dorchester were agitating for new lands on which to accommodate their increasing numbers. Doctrinal schism played no small role in motivating some prospective emigrants, and the unsettled valley of the Connecticut River, west of the Bay Colony, beckoned. The Dutch and the Pilgrims of the Plymouth colony also desired settlements on the Connecticut, but it was from the Bay that the majority of Connecticut's first planters originated.

From Andrews, Charles McLean (1863-1943). "The River Towns of Connecticut: A Study of Wethersfield, Hartford, and Windsor". Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, 7th ser., 7-9. Baltimore, Publication Agency of the Johns Hopkins University, 1889. LCCN 04007961

"This was the man [John Oldham] who, early in September, 1633, started out from the [Massachusetts] Bay with John Hall and two other companions to trade in Connecticut. Plunging boldly into the wilderness, so soon to be made historic by a more famous emigration, they pursued a winding itinerary, in order to take advantage of Indian villages where they might lodge at night. On reaching the valley they were hospitably received by the sachem, possibly the one who had already visited Boston, and on returning, carried back to that colony beaver, hemp, and black lead. Regarding the southernmost point reached by Oldham we have no information.

The distance to Connecticut was reckoned by him as one hundred and sixty miles. Allowing for the necessary windings incident to a journey through a primeval wilderness, and supposing him to have reached for greater security the river at a point due west from the Bay, perhaps near Springfield, and then to have followed its course southward, the above impression which he received of the distance is easily explainable. That Oldham and his companions penetrated as far south as the then unoccupied sites of Hartford and Windsor is undoubted, and that he was the first white explorer of the lands farther south in the present Wethersfield township, further evidence gives good reason to believe."

"[In 1634]... there is some evidence of an exodus from Watertown to Connecticut. ... There has long been a tradition that a few Watertown people came in 1634 to Connecticut and passed a hard winter in hastily erected log huts at Pyquag, the Indian name of Wethersfield. Tradition is apt to contain a kernel of truth, and in this case further evidence seems to substantiate it. In case such a movement took place from Watertown, whether because of the decision of the Newtown people to remain, or independent of it, it is unlikely that Oldham would have failed of cooperation with the movers, if he was not actually an instigator of the plan itself. ..."

"[Oldham] was sufficiently acquainted with either route - overland or by sea - to have taken the journey without great inconvenience. ... With this then as our evidence, we venture the following historical sequence. Shortly after the September meeting of the Massachusetts General Court in 1634, Mr. Oldham led a party of eight adventurous men to the point reached by him on his overland journey in 1633, where he was impressed by the fertility and beauty of the river meadows and the fact of non-occupation by white men. Here huts were erected, the ground prepared and grain sown along the lowest eastern slope of the ridge, half a mile from the river, out of reach of the spring freshets.

In the following spring Mr. Oldham returned to Watertown, and very likely his presence once more among the uneasy people instigated the petition which was presented by them to the court held in Newtown, May 6, 1635, asking leave to remove. A favorable answer was given to this, and Mr. Oldham accompanied a second band of settlers, some fifteen or twenty in number, who settled in Wethersfield, near the others, to the westward. We are without doubt warranted in the statement that of the three towns composing the Connecticut colony, Wethersfield was the first occupied by settlers and planters who became and integral part of the later community. ... The existing state of things [1635] is, then, a Dutch fort of doubtful permanency at Hartford; a strong, well-established palisaded block-house at Windsor; both of these engaged in trade with the Indians; and a small handful of planters - some twenty-five or thirty - in the meadows of Wethersfield - all in the midst of half friendly and hostile Indians."

"Within two months - by August 16, 1635 - a settlement was made by [Dorchester people] on the Connecticut. Their unfortunate selection of the lands adjoining the Plymouth block-house led to a lengthy dispute and considerable ill feeling between the two colonies. ... This disputed "Lord's Waste" is now the town of Windsor. ... While this dispute was in progress... a third claimant appeared. This was the Stiles party, which, sent from England by Sir Richard Saltonstall, one of the Connecticut patentees, had arrived in Boston, June 16, for the express purpose of settling in Connecticut. They were sent out from the Bay ten days later, and probably arrived sometime after the 6th of July. This party of servants numbered sixteen, and included three women, the first of their sex in the Connecticut valley."

"... Before the differences already mentioned had been permanently settled, and while the Dorchester emigrants were subduing the fields and forests of Windsor for habitation, in spite of the Plymouth land claims, word was returned to their townspeople left behind that the way was prepared. On the fifteenth of October there started from the Bay colony a body of sixty men, women, and children, by land, with their cows, horses, and swine. Their household furniture and winter provisions had been sent by water, together with probably a few emigrants to whom the overland journey would have proved too tedious. The majority of these people were from Dorchester, but accompanying them were others from Newtown and Watertown, who joined the townspeople on the ground they were cultivating."

"The period [1636] of unicameral government was the time of greatest emigration, "the special going out of the children of Israel." ... It is worthy of note that many of the Connecticut settlers continued to hold lands in the Bay colony for some time after their withdrawal to Connecticut. ... Every effort was made by the home government at the Bay to check this flow of emigration, or at least to turn its current into more adjacent channels; but the bent of the emigrant's spirit was toward Connecticut, and for the time being the colonial government was helpless to prevent it. ... The emigration grew less and less until 1638, and though large numbers came to Massachusetts that year, very few seem to have come to Connecticut. ... The Pequot war was not without its effect, but the Massachusetts men without doubt abused Connecticut. ... The report was spread that all the cows were dead, that Hooker was weary of his station, that the upland would bear no corn, the meadows nothing but weeds; that the people were almost starved in consequence. Such reports, spread abroad in the streets, at the inns, and even in England before embarkation, are a little astounding.

"As before intimated, by 1637 the tide of emigration had almost ceased. After-comers were not few, indeed, but the movements which gave birth to a new colony had practically reached an end."

Additional information about this story

Description From Andrews, Charles McLean (1863-1943). "The River Towns of Connecticut: A Study of Wethersfield, Hartford, and Windsor". Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, 7th ser., 7-9. Baltimore, Publication Agency of the Johns Hop

Date 1633

Location Connecticut

Genealogy of the Loveland Family in the USA

WIDOW LOVELAND: Excerpts of the 'Genealogy of the Loveland Family in the USA' painted the following picture: “Our family with two others, Smith* and Kimberly, came from England. Mr. Loveland died on the passage. Kimberly, Smith, the Widow Loveland and her three sons came to America. They together bought a tract of land of an Indian chief, the tribe assenting. When the land was surveyed some lay in what is now called Glastonbury and some in Wethersfield, Connecticut. The Widow Loveland's land lay on each side of the Connecticut River. Kimberly's land lay in Wethersfield and Smith's in Glastonbury. One of Mrs. Loveland's sons settled in Wethersfield, the other in Glastonbury. The other son was drowned in the Connecticut River when passing from one side to the other. He died unmarried, the other two married.”

“Sowheag was the name of the great Sachem who lived in Middletown, Connecticut. His dominion extended over all the Indians of Middletown, Chatham, and over the Pyquag or Wethersfield Indians, whose Sachem's name was Sequin. Tradition says: "The land bought by the Widow Loveland, Smith and Kimberly was bought of Sequin, the tribe assenting."” “The widow's share of this land lay on the east and west banks of the Connecticut River. Shortly after taking possession of her grant one of her sons was drowned while crossing the river in a canoe.” “WIDOW LOVELAND, pursued a remedial action for trespass, 1649. Samuel Gardiner for himself. Thomas Edwards and Widow Loveman against Osman, defendant, in an action of trespass. Damages, .£4. (Colonial Records, Sept. 16, 1649.) Tradition says, "Mr. Loveland paid Smith and Kimberly's passage from England, for their services on the passage, and for a stated time thereafter. Mr. Loveland was supercargo 'An officer on a merchant ship in charge of the cargo and its sale and purchase'; after his death they kept the widow's accounts, but never recorded the deed of the land they bought of Sequin, the Sachem of Wethersfield."

We have a tradition that Smith and Kimberly dealt unfairly with the Widow Loveland.” “Wethersfield, the venerable mother of Glastonbury, divided her territory in 1690, and that part of her east of the Connecticut river became Glastonbury. The mother town is the oldest in the State and was first settled in 1634. Our Loveland ancestors settled in Glastonbury in 1635-1639. The settlers of ancient Wethersfield, which included Glastonbury, purchased their land of the natives who gave them a hearty welcome. The tradition that the Widow Loveland and her sons purchased their lands of Sequin is no doubt true. Many individual grants were made to the first settlers, but this loose way of acquiring title to the soil was soon superseded by two extensive purchases.

The first purchase, made by the town about 1636, is described as lying on each side of the Connecticut River, extending five miles west and three large miles east of it. The second purchase extended five miles east of the first. Subsequent measurements made ancient Wethersfield six miles wide from north to south and fourteen miles long. The natives gave no deed for the first purchase or the individual grants. Sowheag' or Sequin was the ruling chief….” “The widow's share of this land lay on the east and west banks of the Connecticut River. Shortly after taking possession of her grant one of her sons was drowned while crossing the river in a canoe. John and Robert, the names of the survivors, married." John died in 1670, and Robert in 1668, both well advanced in years. John appears to have been a tiller of the soil, Robert a sea-faring man.

The last account we have of Robert is drawn from the New London Public Record (Connecticut). In 1658 he was mariner and trader between New London and Boston, Massachusetts. In May, 1660, we find him supercargo of the ship Hope ; the master of the ship Robert Warner. This voyage was from Malaga, Spain, and put in at New London for repairs. He seems to have left the sea about this time and became a resident of New London, entering largely into the commercial enterprises of the town. He died here in 1668, quite an aged and wealthy man.” ”For various reasons, drawn from tradition and circumstantial evidence, this Robert Loveland, mariner and trader, is regarded as the founder of our family in America. It is quite certain that after his death in 1668, and after the death of his brother John in 1670, there was but one person in America bearing our name. His name was Thomas, and, for aforesaid reasons, is believed to have been Robert's son.”

“We now approach a period of time memorable to every one bearing the Loveland name. In the year 1635 three thousand emigrants came to this country from Old England to New England. We close our ears to the agonizing cries of the widow and her three fatherless sons at the burial of the husband and father at sea. With the courage of the bravest Puritan she was of the founders of Concord, Hartford, Windsor and Wethersfield. She and her sons were of the sixty bold spirits who penetrated the wilderness from Boston and settled the three latter towns in Connecticut, October, 1635. They arrived in time to send their gifts of corn and wampum to found Old Harvard, to reap the first fruit of the first New England printing press in 1639, and to read the first book printed from that same press in 1640.” THE FIRST LOVELANDS IN AMERICA.

Extracts from Savage's Genealogical Dictionary. "

ROBERT LOVELAND, BOSTON, 1645.

NEW LONDON1, l666.

Additional information about this story

Description Excerpts of the 'Genealogy of the Loveland Family in the USA' THE FIRST LOVELANDS IN AMERICA. Extracts from Savage's Genealogical Dictionary. " ROBERT LOVELAND, BOSTON, 1645. NEW LONDON1, l666.

Date 1635

Location Connecticut, USA